Mourinho believes character showed as Roma progress

The Giallorossi progressed 2-1 on aggregate, following the first leg win in the Netherlands...

More was expected from Roma tonight. It’s always tough in Europe…

“More is expected from every team, not just from Roma. But, in the end anyone can be going home and anyone can progress to the next round. Luckily for us, we are going through to the draw tomorrow.”

Another positive aspect from tonight was the ability the side showed to produce when you needed it most – they showed character.

“It’s a squad with it’s limitations, in various ways. Nevertheless, if a few months everyone was saying that we didn’t know how to see out a contest then today they have to say the opposite; they have to talk about our ability to respond the right way in the closing moments under pressure from our opponents.

“It’s a good quality, but I don’t think it will last forever. I don’t believe it will be the same on Sunday. Right now we are enjoying positive momentum and we need to keep building on whatever it is; eight, nine, ten games unbeaten now.

“Today the positive thing is that when we were 1-0 down, in a risky situation, in a situation where other sides would try to defend and then go to extra-time and try and save our energy for that, instead we played to win until the very end.

“But, if you will allow me, I also want to say that Vitesse played really well. Often there is the tendency to say the other side are terrible, that we didn’t play well – but I will say that I didn’t know their coach beforehand but he is really good. They played in great fashion; the dynamic they had between the back three is a credit to them. I am pleased we are through to the next round.

“Obviously I am not so happy that we have played tonight with many of the players that will also start against Lazio on Sunday, whereas Lazio’s players have been smoking cigarettes with Maurizio Sarri at home tonight.”

Did you expect the game to play out the way it did?

“We prepared for this match with one target in mind: winning it. We didn’t ever think about trying to manage the contest and maybe drawing in order to get through on aggregate. We are not able to work incredible hard on the training ground during the current run of games, but nevertheless we worked on this one with the aim of winning it.

“Up until their great goal to make it 1-0, it felt like we had the game under control. What did Rui Patricio have to do? What did Vitesse really create?

“At half-time I asked the players to focus on three things. One thing was avoiding giving away set-pieces. The second: when one of their defenders had the ball we had to be alert to the long ball over the top – because that’s always what they we looking for with the hopes of maybe latching onto a knockdown. Thirdly, I wanted to make sure we stayed balanced in defence if we lost the ball.

“We struggled a bit with the third of those, because we sometimes gave the ball away too easily – the two forwards lost the ball a lot. We lost a lot of possession there and in midfield and even down the flanks.

“It wasn’t our best performance, from a technical perspective. We defended well, the defenders did pretty well. We showed the right character in a game that was on the edge for a while.

“I am sorry for them. I can’t say it was 100% merited on our part, because they played well. But we did what we needed to do across the two games and when you put it all together perhaps it was enough. Over there it was really tough, for various reasons, but now we can think about the derby on Sunday.

“As I said before, Sarri is sitting at home smoking today whereas I now have to go home and work out how I can ensure these players recover before the game.”